Manchester is getting another British première of a new musical, this time with a subtitle that references the highest-grossing Indian film of 1995 and one of the most successful ever, Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (The Brave-Hearted Will Take the Bride). This production is directed by the writer-director of that original film, Aditya Chopra, but with a new book and lyrics by Legally Blonde: The Musical writer Nell Benjamin and 18 new English songs with music by successful Indian composers Vishal Dadlani and Sheykhar Ravjiani.
The musical follows the basic plot of the film, the biggest change being that Raj, the British Indian son of a rich businessman, has become Rog (Ashley Day), the white son of tech millionaire Roger Mandel Senior (Russell Wilcox), who hates mixing with people, congratulates his son on partying more than studying while at Oxford and complains that his socialite ex-wife Minky (Kara Lane) is spending his money on things of which she knows he'd disapprove. Fellow philosophy student Simran (Jena Pandya), however, is the hard-working daughter of Indian parents Baldev (Irvine Iqbal) and Lajjo (Harveen Mann-Neary) who defends the principal of arranged marriage to her friend, Cookie (Millie O'Connell).
The first act is pure romcom. Rog and Simran first meet at one of his parties, where he comes across as an obnoxiously entitled rich boy and she ends up in gaol because of him. Simran arranges to go on a girls' holiday with Cookie across Europe, but her friend has fallen for Ben (Amonik Melaco) and invited him along without telling her, and Ben is bringing his friend... Rog. Of course Simran is repelled by Rog, but he has suddenly become the perfect gentleman. When they miss the train due to spending too long in the Einstein Museum gift shop—guess what—all the hotels are full except one, which only has the honeymoon suite available.
In the deepest philosophical conversation of the show, Simran refuses champagne because she is worried she will like it and not be able to ever have it again, but Rog persuades her it is better to have experienced it than to never know whether you would have liked it. She likes it, and orders another bottle—but wakes not knowing exactly what happened the night before.
Act I ends with them in love but not able to admit it and so saying farewell at St Pancras station. Act II moves to India, where Baldev and Lajjo have taken Simran to marry Kuljit (Kinshuk Sen), the rather brash son of Baldev's business partner, Agit (Ankur Sabharwal), but Rog persuades his mother to take him there to try to win the girl. Simran is willing to run away with him, but he refuses, instead saying he wants to win the approval of her father, not estrange her from her family. That quest is the story of the rest of the show.
There are some great comic, spectacular and touching moments, but overall, the book is sprawling with big holes in the plot and lots of interesting ideas that are introduced but barely developed. Apart from Rog's main problems—winning the girl in act I and winning the father in act I—other obstacles are too quickly and easily overcome, so there is no real jeopardy or tension in the plot, and considering Simran achieved a first at Oxford, the level of philosophical debate barely reaches undergraduate level. The songs are basically pop with an Indian influence with lyrics that are functional if not inspirational and fit well enough.
The main cast fit their roles very well, even though some of their characters are underdeveloped. Rob Ashford and Shruti Merchant have between them produced the cross-cultural choreography, which works well, while Derek McLane's scenic designs and Linda Cho's costumes take us appropriately from the dull, cloudy streets of Oxford to the almost overwhelming colour of the Indian wedding scenes and dance numbers. There is some nice, subtle video design from Akhila Krishnan, including pigeons on a front gauze that look remarkably real.
At the press night, at least half of the packed audience in the stalls (I couldn't see the balconies) must have been non-white, which is great to see, and they responded very enthusiastically, cheering references or music that they recognised, so there is certainly an audience for this in a UK theatre.
However for me, while it is quite a bit shorter than the film, its two hour forty running time felt too long and the plot too flimsy to carry it, but there is plenty to enjoy along the way.